﻿National Jewish Health in the Community: Educational Collaborations with Local and Regional Impact

The Office of Professional Education at National Jewish Health (Professional Education) is working with local and regional health networks to address knowledge, competence, and performance gaps in the areas of asthma, COPD, and atopic dermatitis.

Through three educational initiatives supported by GlaxoSmithKline and one by Pfizer, Professional Education provides evidence-based education to more than 200 providers and more than 300 medical staff who treat medically underserved, uninsured, and underinsured patients in Colorado. These programs address the diagnosis and management of asthma, COPD, and atopic dermatitis. They provide educational trainings and resources to physicians, RNs, NPs, PAs, MAs, and other members of the health care team and positively impact the lives of tens of thousands of patients.

These performance improvement continuing medical education (PI CME) programs take place over a 1-2 year time frame, with the goal of providing community health networks with the knowledge, skills, tools, support and infrastructure to sustain best practices and improve patient outcomes. These goals are met through evidence-based education, hands-on and in-clinic training, redesign of patient workflow, and a team-based approach to care. See a local news story on one of the programs.

Another important component of the programs is engaging patients in the self-management of their illness by using patient education materials developed in both English and Spanish that are designed to meet the needs of specific populations.

Professional Education has collaborated with the following community health networks on the PI CME initiatives mentioned above: Metro Community Provider Network, Salud Family Health Centers, Rocky Mountain Youth Clinics, San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center, Valley-Wide Health Systems and Conejos County Hospital. These programs take place in the Denver metropolitan area, rural areas north and east of Denver and the San Luis Valley in western Colorado.

Professional Education thanks the community health networks and physicians, the program chairs, faculty and staff for their expertise, time and commitment to these educational initiatives.

For more information about PI CME, other educational offerings and the Office of Professional Education, please visit njhealth.org/cme or contact Professional Education at 303.398.1000 (x1000).

﻿Award-Winning Education

At this year’s Colorado Alliance for Continuing Medical Education (CACME) annual meeting, the Office of Professional Education at National Jewish Health (Professional Education) was presented with the 2012 Best Practice in Collaboration Award for their CME program titled Making the Right Diagnosis: The Need for Spirometry. The award recognizes the program’s innovative quality, creativity, and the significance of stakeholder collaboration within the continuing medical education profession.

National Jewish Health, the National Medical Association (NMA), the nation’s oldest and largest organization representing African American physicians and health professionals in the United States, and the COPD Foundation, a non-profit patient advocacy and education group, jointly developed the program for the NMA’s member physicians.

The concept for the program originated in 2010 when Barry Make, MD and Professional Education collaborated with Michael Foggs, MD, a physician leader at the NMA, to produce an educational activity on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The collaboration, along with Dr. Make’s leadership, and NJH’s reputation as the nation’s #1 respiratory hospital, led to a strong partnership with the NMA’s leadership team. A review of outcomes from the activity identified gaps in spirometry utilization in the practices of the NMA’s member physicians. Based on those practice gaps, Making the Right Diagnosis: The Need for Spirometry was developed and presented at the 2011 NMA Annual Convention & Scientific Assembly in Washington, DC.

Professional Education immediately saw the opportunity for further collaboration on this initiative, and involved the COPD Foundation, a not-for-profit group that brings needed resources to the COPD community, making the program a unique collaboration between an academic medical center, a national association and a patient advocacy organization. The activity received collaborative funding through educational grants from Merck, Pfizer, and Forest Pharmaceuticals.

For more information about this continuing medical education activity, please visit our newsroom.

Aster Award for Asthma Toolkit Patient Materials

The Aster Awards is a medical marketing awards program, allowing health care organizations and advertising agencies to compete against similarly sized competitors from across the nation and world.

Each year the Aster Awards has an annual contest allowing entries designed, printed and/or distributed the previous year to be scored, judged and recognized for excellence in healthcare marketing and advertising. National Jewish Health received a Silver medal for the creation of Patient Education materials for the Metro Community Providers Network Asthma Toolkit continuing medical education activity. Learn more about the Asthma Toolkit.

This Elite program is hosted by Creative Images, Inc., an internationally recognized firm that has specialized in strategic health care marketing for more than 20 years.

﻿Medicine Grand Rounds Now Offered for CME Credit

“We are pleased to offer CME credit for NJH Medicine Grand Rounds. Professional Education certifies hundreds of educational activities for the provider community nationwide in a variety of therapeutic areas. So, it’s great to be able to provide CME certification for internally-focused education through a tremendous Grand Rounds series,” said Sarah K. Meadows, MS, CCMEP,Manager, Accreditation and Programs for Professional Education at National Jewish Health.

Esther Langmack, MD, Medical Director, Office of Professional Education and the Director of Faculty and Community Education for the Department of Medicine has championed the certification of this ongoing educational series as a great opportunity to provide certified education and credit to National Jewish Health faculty and staff.

Physician, PA, and NP participants are eligible to earn up to 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ for each session in the 2012-2013 National Jewish Health Medicine Grand Rounds series. Participants need to sign in when they arrive and complete the post-activity evaluation. CME certificates will be sent at the end of the Grand Rounds series, which concludes in June 2013. Presenting faculty at Grand Rounds will receive up to 2 credits for preparing and presenting their talks.

Medicine Grand Rounds are typically held the first and third Mondays of the month, September through June, 12:00-1:00 pm in Heitler Hall. To learn about upcoming presentations, go to the Education Bulletin, which also lists other lectures on the main National Jewish Health campus and at University of Colorado School of Medicine.

For questions about CME credit for National Jewish Health Medicine Grand Rounds, please contact Sarah Meadows in the Office of Professional Education at meadowss@njhealth.org.

National Jewish Health is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

﻿Faculty Benefits of Working with Professional Education

Take part in teaching opportunities that can be included in your academic portfolio

Earn CME credit for developing and presenting educational content

Become established as a thought leader in the conditions you treat, both locally and nationally

Engage in a forum for sharing your experiences and expertise, and ultimately improve patient care

Receive honoraria and AEF support

For more information about working with the Office of Professional Education, and to submit program ideas, please contact Andrea Harshman at harshmana@njhealth.org or 303.398.1000 (x1000).

CME/CE OPPORTUNITIES

The Office of Professional Education was awarded the Best Practice in Collaboration Award and the Best Practice in Research Award at the 2014 Colorado Alliance of Continuing Medical Education (CACME) Annual Meeting. Read more.